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US weighs right to bear arms at work

Margaret Newkirk, Bloomberg News

Workplace safety ... or the right to carry guns. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

JOHNNY CASH once sang about about the disastrous outcome for a young cowboy who ignored his mother's pleas about taking his gun to town. Now, four US states are considering whether to allow employees the right to bring their weapons to work.

The measures, backed by the National Rifle Association, would allow workers in Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Pennsylvania to keep weapons locked and hidden in their cars in staff parking areas.

But the laws have prompted opposition from companies such as FedEx and Volkswagen.

It is a dilemma for the Republican-dominated governments, with two of their party's traditional constituencies against each other: gun-rights supporters and businesses.

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Seventeen states have approved similar measures since 2003, according to a tally by the Law Centre to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco.

The law's proponents say the measures are needed to protect staff during commutes. They say employers who ban guns on their property are preventing workers from possessing weapons when they commute, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

''This provides safety and protection for workers who oftentimes travel [30 to 80 kilometres] to their jobs,'' said Alabama state senator Roger Bedford, a Democrat who has introduced a parking lot gun law in the state's Republican-controlled parliament.

Workplace homicides average about 500 a year in the US, according to studies by ASIS International Foundation, a Virginia security professional association, and by the Justice Department. Shootings accounted for 80 per cent of workplace homicides between 2005 and 2009.